Below are some of the records whose sonics, in our opinion, leave much to be desired:
Practically every record Acoustic Sounds ever released INCLUDING the new 45 RPM Jazz series would qualify, as would
98% of the Sundazed catalog
95% of the Simply Vinyl catalog
95%+ of the Classic Records catalog
100% of the Get Back catalog
and most of the catalog of most of the other labels out there, too numerous and too painful to bear mentioning.
We Have a New Section!
We created a new section specifically devoted to our favorite pastime here at Better Records: Debunking
The Audiophile LP. Every Hot Stamper shootout is an opportunity to bash the trash that is marketed as an Audiophile Pressing, whether it's pressed on Heavy Vinyl, Half-Speed Mastered, or has some other dubious attribute which far from guarantees better sound. We introduced it this way:
The Bad Audiophile LP regularly gets the punishment it deserves from our merry band of reviewers here at Better Records.
We created this section to bring together many of these critical commentaries. We hope you find them both educational and enjoyable. Rarely do we conduct a Hot Stamper shootout without the relevant Audiophile Pressing being involved. With few exceptions (which are so unusual I can't actually remember the last time it happened) these head to head battles consistently leave the audiophile LP beaten and bloodied, making our point again and again, to wit:
The Audiophile's Choice -- the record that will do the best job of communicating the music -- is almost never going to be the one marketed to him as an Audiophile.
